April 27th – What Is My Favourite Disney Quote?

Today I will be sharing with you my favourite, most inspirational Disney quote. Every single Disney film has positive morals, uplifting themes and encouraging lines. We can gain so much from these children’s cartoons. I certainly did when I truly started paying attention as an adult. The quote I have picked today is probably the most popular but I just love it because it’s so true. It can teach us so much if we are willing to listen. It is…

‘OH YES, THE PAST CAN HURT BUT THE WAY I SEE IT, YOU CAN EITHER RUN FROM IT OR LEARN FROM IT…’

Who doesn’t love wise, old baboon Rafiki? He is depicted as an animal shaman in The Lion King who watches over Pride Rock and all its creatures. When he learns that Simba is alive as an adult, he follows his scent to locate him. He journeys to the jungle where Simba is living with Timon and Pumbaa and there he realises the lion is struggling with a deep emotional burden.

Intrigued, Simba follows the crazy monkey who keeps singing: Asante sana, squash banana, we we nugu, mi mi apana which translates to: ‘thank you very much, squash banana, you are a baboon and I am not.’ Rafiki tries to tell Simba that his father Mufasa is alive. Simba assures him that he is not. He is led to a pool of reflective water and told to fix his gaze on it. There, he sees a rippling image of his late father proving that he indeed lives within his son. Rafiki does his best to show Simba that he has what it takes to be King and save Pride Rock from the ruin it has become.

Mufasa’s spirit appears in the sky, urging Simba to remember who he is. He tells his son that he must take his place in the Great Circle of Life. Simba is sad when the vision ends. He tells Rafiki that it’s been so long since he returned and is hesitant about his abilities. Rafiki hits him on the head with his tribal stick to which Simba retaliates: ‘ow, what did you do that for?’ Rafiki replies: ‘it doesn’t matter, it’s in the past.’ Simba says: ‘yes but it still hurts’ and Rafiki answers: ‘oh yes, the past can hurt but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.’

This resonates strongly with Simba. He decides to return to Pride Rock and reclaim what is rightfully his. We can apply Rafiki’s words of wisdom to any area of our life. Sure, we can spend our lives dwelling on the past and how much it hurt us but what will that achieve? The best way to move forward is to learn from what happened and start over. Rafiki goes to hit Simba again but this time our hero has learned and evades the attack. He steals his stick which aggravates the cheeky monkey. If we can gain insight from past events, we will be much more equipped to handle anything that comes our way in the future. I also interpret Rafiki’s quote to mean that sometimes we hold onto things much longer than we should. We are really only free once we work through the pain. You cannot run from your issues, they come with you wherever you go. They need to be faced head-on with bravery and honesty.

Which is your favourite Disney quote? What has it taught you and how can it be applied to a situation in your life?

Honourable Mention

‘The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all’ from Mulan

5 thoughts on “April 27th – What Is My Favourite Disney Quote?”

My favourite Disney quote is also the Rafiki one! He is such a wise creature yet he also sees the lighter side of things 😀 I got another Rafiki doll for my Rafiki. It is my dream one day to get a cute Rafiki stuffed doll from Disneyland. They are surprisingly hard to come by 😀

I never actually thought about my favorite Disney quote before even though I grew up on Disney and still fall in love with new ones to this day. A lot of them have reentered my life because there are some Disney movies that I did forget I loved once upon a time and some of them have been able to reenter my life such as Beauty and the Beast and hearing the Broadway songs on Pandora and watching the New Live Movie of Beauty and the Beast brought back the love I once had for it